Business can be tough and competitors are always a consideration.
So it was perhaps no surprise that someone at Lead Forensics would get to the point of doing something daft, probably in frustration at losing so much business to both ourselves and others in our industry. Read on for the preamble followed by the specific episode of daftness.
At A1WebStats, we firmly believe that while it’s useful to be able to identify companies that visit your website, forward-thinking organisations would be using website analytics to get strong insights into overall website visitors (beyond those that can be identified as being from companies), in order to gain more results from their websites.
While many organisations (particularly larger ones, but not exclusively) use Google Analytics in great depth, most businesses struggle with it and find that the A1WebStats system goes way beyond identifying visiting companies and provides business-valuable information.
And this is the key difference between us and Lead Forensics (whose primary focus appears to be identifying companies and then finding ways to contact them).
We know that Lead Forensics have plenty of negative things to say about us, because people tell us. We also put up with ‘Lead Forensics friends’ mystery shopping (but leaving a blatantly clear trail that even a school kid could track back). We love getting that feedback and attention because it continually proves the point that Lead Forensics are feeling the pain of competition and will, ultimately, have to change their business model (and we’ll be very proud to have been part of making that happen). The small business that we are getting so much attention from a much bigger business – it’s almost flattering.
When we talk with trial subscribers (who are typically also trialling Lead Forensics), we do comment that the Lead Forensics system is very good at what it does, for those businesses that have the budget and who don’t care about the contract period. There’s no denying that it’s a good product. But it’s not right for everyone, particularly those that have a desire to truly get more from their websites through analytics, as you can see from our page https://a1webstats.com/2020/12/11/16-reasons-why-a1webstats-will-get-you-more-business-than-lead-forensics/
People find us in various ways, including via our blogs and today (1.40pm, Friday 13th – unlucky for Lead Forensics – November 2015) we got a comment on our blog, which was:
Apart from being factually incorrect (for example, about the service element – we do of course have a service element to our offering, and our subscribers have great things to say about that), the words “I would much prefer to pay £300 per month and get true value” could be interpreted as being someone who is a raving fan of Lead Forensics. If you believed that for a second though, look at the IP address it came from …
213.131.182.34, port-34.marketmakers.co.uk
Hmmm, marketmakers – could that really be the same Market Makers that Lead Forensics are part of? Let’s have a look at visitors to our website at 1:40pm today to see what it shows …
Well, what a surprise, someone from within the Lead Forensics/Market Makers business, going by the name of ‘Tim’ (or whatever their real name was) posted the response.
AND, they clearly wanted it be published.
So of course we published it. We shouldn’t discriminate on the basis of it being a competitor responding to our blog, reinforcing to us the underlying frustration of losing business to us. We shouldn’t nit pick about spelling (‘Tim’ – it’s not ‘where as’, it’s ‘whereas’). We also shouldn’t expect that the posting would have been written by someone who has a full understanding of what matters about website visits (it’s not for us to judge the recruitment criteria for Lead Forensics personnel).
Professionally-speaking though, we’d probably have handled it a better way (tip to ‘Tim’ – do at least have the common sense to use a different IP address when posting something – it would at least let us stretch our brains a little bit and help your employer avoid the cardinal sin of posting so blatantly).
We have no idea who ‘Tim’ is – he/she could well be a young wet-behind-the-ears, eager to earn money type who has little understanding of business. They may even have lost a potential client or few to us recently. Whatever their persona, probably not the type of person we’d want working in our organisation to be honest.
It’s Children in Need day in the UK and as we’re feeling generally charitable we’ve also got a tip to Lead Forensics management – empowerment of staff can be wonderfully enabling but in some cases, it’s better to have a procedure in place that helps to avoid damage to your brand.
Thank you ‘Tim’, you really made our day and put smiles on our faces.
It was the aggressive attitude of lead forensics that led me to A1. I have clients ask me about Lead Forensics frequently, but the contact I’ve had with the firm & the product have left me uncomfortable to endorse them in any way. In fact I became aware of A1 webstats at an industry event where a small group of industry professionals were sharing their frustration with Lead Forensics aggressive sales, high price and general attitude. Someone suggested A1 as an alternative so I got in touch!
I made two phone calls today to get some questions answered about using a Lead Identification & Web site Analysis service.
The calls were like night & day.
Lead Forensics was high pressure selling, very little listening, and virtually no useful response to the important questions I had.
A1WebStats, Andy to be precise, was a true professional, fully understanding my questions, providing incredibly helpful answers, and indeed answers to other important questions I hadn’t thought of.
Needless to say, when we decide to purchase one of these services, guess who it will be!
Thanks for taking the time to comment Ian – it’s always nice to feel that our approach is appreciated.
Lead Forensics are a bunch of cowboys, similar in guise to a double glazing or PPI salesman.
They are very arrogant and think that their product has some unique ability. NEWSFLASH it doesn’t.
Their people don’t respond to emails unless it’s beneficial to them. Then when you complain, you get another sharpe dose of arrogance from people like “Tim” or “Paul” or “Lisa” or “Gerry”.
Having been an ex client they only care where their next buck comes from.
Sorry (but not surprised) you’ve had that experience Mark, although you’re perhaps being a bit unfair to double glazing or PPI salesmen by putting them in the company as Lead Forensics 😉
Hilarious! Terrible spelling and grammar, I am enjoying your posts and attitude good on you, live long and prosper let them keep hanging themselves.